There was a point after Nada Surf's second album, 1998's 'The Proximity Effect,' when singer Matthew Caws thought his band might break up. In its current state, these Brooklynites have been crafting hook-filled songs about pining after love for over ten years, a remarkable feat considering the major-label woes that plagued their early days. After the band's 1996 debut album, 'High/Low,' produced an MTV-hit -- 'Popular' -- the pressure was on for Nada Surf to follow up with a blockbusting single. Apparently, Elektra heard no such smash on 'Proximity' and subsequently dropped the band.

Caws refused to let Nada Surf languish in a sophomore slump, though, mostly because he was too lazy to do anything else. "Breaking up would have meant starting a new band or career," he tells Spinner. "I couldn't make a big life choice like that."

Sheer inertia only in part explains Nada Surf's longevity; Caws' insistent need to write songs might also have something to do with it -- he's prolific when it comes to penning snippets of them, anyway. "There's no guarantee that at the end of the day I will have written a full song," Caws says. "But I just craft a lot of songs that are only 10 or 15 seconds long. Pulling them all together into a real album is the hard part."

It's been three years since Nada Surf released 'The Weight is a Gift,' and Caws has finally compiled 11 indie-pop gems for his band's fifth album, 'Lucky.' Along with bassist Daniel Lorca and drummer Ira Elliot, Caws headed just outside of Seattle to record at the spacious Robert Lang Studio. ("It has a basketball half-court inside!" Caws gushes). And the studio's fortuitous location resulted in some unexpected collaborations -- Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard guests on slow-burner 'See These Bones,' and the guitar-buzzing 'Ice On the Wing' features Long Winters' frontman John Roderick. "They were just coming over for dinner or to say 'Hi,' so it made sense to put them in front of the mic," Caws says. "Though we never had a particular direction for 'Lucky,' it's actually more positive than our other releases. Even though the songs are about exorcising anxiety, they're also about enjoying life."

"I intentionally avoided making big Hallmark statements that say, 'put me 'One Tree Hill,''" Caws laughs, referring to the soundtrack slot 'Inside of Love' featutred on the teen drama, as well as the sitcom 'How I Met Your Mother.' "Now, the only song we'll get on TV is 'I Like What You Say,' but it would only work for a phone commercial."